Broward medical examiner's son is among those charged in pill mill case

February 23, 2011|By Sofia Santana, Sun Sentinel

Among those charged with racketeering and drug trafficking in Wednesday's pain clinic raids is Dr. Zvi Harry Perper, son of Broward Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Joshua Perper, who is among the leaders of the region's ongoing battle with prescription drug abuse.

Authorities say Dr. Zvi Harry Perper, 49, ranked 22nd in the nation among medical practitioners in ordering oxycodone, which he dispensed at the pain clinic where he worked, Delray Pain Management.

He faces 18 counts, including racketeering, trafficking in oxycodone and conspiracy to traffic in oyxcodone, a potent pain killer.

Joshua Perper, Broward's chief medical examiner since 1994, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

For the past decade he has joined and, at times, led Broward officials in sounding the alarm against worsening prescription drug abuse and the thousands of deaths blamed on the phenomenon.

Authorities blame part of the phenomenon on South Florida's booming black market for pain pills, many of which are dispensed by pain clinics that accept only cash from clients in order to avoid state oversight.

Investigators allege Delray Pain Management was such a clinic, and that Zvi Harry Perper profited handsomely, receiving cash payments at least a couple of times a week in bundles of several hundred to a couple thousand dollars.

Zvi Harry Perper was listed as the owner of the downtown Delray Beach clinic on state registration documents. In the state corporation log, however, Perper is identified as a manager; court records filed by investigators show a clinic employee's ex-husband as being the owner.

From January 2010 through June 2010, Zvi Harry Perper ordered 387,248 oxycodone pills, while, in comparison, the seven pharmacies nearest to Delray Pain Management ordered slightly fewer than 500,000 pills — for the entire year, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Investigators looked only at that six-month period in Zvi Harry Perper's case because in July 2010 Delray Beach enacted a city ordinance limiting pain clinics to dispensing a three-day supply of pain medication to patients, drastically reducing the number of pills flowing in and out of Delray Pain Management and other dispensaries.

In addition to raiding the clinic Wednesday, authorities also received a search warrant for Zvi Harry Perper's half-million -dollar Boca Raton home, which is listed in his wife's name.

Zvi Harry Perper has been associated with Delray Pain Management since at least January 2010, according to state records. The business was founded in February 2009 and has no history of formal complaints with the Florida Department of Health.

Before working at the clinic, Zvi Harry Perper practiced in South Florida, Tampa and Orlando as an obstetrician/gynecologist.

In 2008, the state health department fined Zvi Harry Perper $10,000 and ordered him to perform 50 hours of community service and attend medical records courses as part of a settlement following a complaint that he botched an abortion in Orlando in December 2003.